"Doodle" for Halley

"Edmond Halley's birthday celebrated by Google doodle"

Google marks 335th birthday of astronomer and mathematician who accurately predicted return of comet later named after him

by

Cherry Wilson

November 7th, 2011

guardian.co.uk

English astronomer and mathematician Edmond Halley has been given the Google Doodle seal of approval to mark his 335th birthday.

Google artists have recreated a logo depicting planets and rockets to celebrate the life of the man who was the first to calculate the orbit of the comet later named after him.

London-born Halley, a graduate of Queen's College, Oxford, dedicated most of his life to astronomy and compiled a catalogue charting the location of stars in the southern hemisphere that was the first to contain telescopically determined locations.

In 1705, he published 'A Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets' in which he depicted the parabolic orbits of 24 comets that had been observed from 1337 to 1698.

In his dossier, he showed that the three historic comets of 1531, 1607 and 1682 were so similar that they must be the same comet and accurately predicted it would return in 1758. It is now known as Halley's comet.

In 1720, Halley succeeded John Flamsteed to become the second appointed Astronomer Royal in Greenwich, a position which he held until his death on 14 January 1742.

He was married to Mary Tooke and the couple had three children.

Edmond Halley [Wikipedia]

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